Personal Projects / 2026
Workout Companion
Designed and built a personal workout app that keeps the next set under one thumb: the plan comes from my own training notes, the phone runs it, and the finished workout goes back to Obsidian.
Design Highlights
One plan, one tap, one rest
Coaching on demand, progress at the end
Focus mode
Planning at a desk
The Obsidian record
History at a glance
Overview
Workout Companion is a personal workout app I designed and built for my own training. A coaching agent I run in OpenClaw writes each session from my Obsidian notes, and the app runs it. The October 2026 Refined Noir redesign rebuilt the live workout around one-thumb logging between sets, with coaching cues available on demand, a keyboard-driven focus mode on desktop, and a finish screen that sends the session back for the next plan.
Challenge
The first version showed too much at once. The live workout stacked a timer card, an exercise picker, a coaching note, a technique cue, and the set list, so the Log set button sat about 1,450px down the page, under the tab bar. Neon green meant primary action, done, live, and history all at the same time, so it signalled nothing. Between sets I have a few seconds and one free thumb, and the interface needed to fit that.
Approach
I set four decisions up front: keep the dark OLED look but calm it down, design for the phone in hand between sets, keep the coaching quiet until asked for, and give the app its own design system. From there I cut the palette to one volt accent on three flat surface steps, moved every live control into the thumb zone, and let a live workout take over the whole screen. Desktop got two shells of its own: a sidebar for browsing and a focus mode for training.
Solution
Today shows one plan card and one Start button. The live set docks two large steppers and a 64px Log set button at the bottom of the screen; rest starts on its own, with an optional one-tap RPE rating, undo, and the next set. Form video and the coaching cue sit behind two quiet chips. On desktop, focus mode runs the session from the keyboard: Enter logs and starts sets, arrows adjust reps and weight, and Esc steps out without ending the workout. Finish shows what moved since last time, flags hard sets for the next plan, and records how the session felt. I also made a 51-second product film in Remotion from scripted captures of the real app.
Impact
Logging a set is now one reach of the thumb instead of a scroll, and the rest screen shows only the countdown, the rating, and what comes next. Each finished session carries weight changes, flagged sets, and session feel back to the planning agent, so the next plan starts from what actually happened. As a product experiment, it shows how personal software can turn notes I already keep into guidance at the moment I need it.
Key Learnings
Removing things did more than adding them. One accent made primary actions readable again, and moving RPE into the rest screen took a decision out of the set itself. Workout software has to respect attention, fatigue, and environment; during a set, the best screen asks for a single action.